"Heavy use?"

Shotgun

Shotgun

Joined
Feb 3, 2006
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What is "heavy use" to you? I hear this talked about a lot and there's thread after thread asking for the best "heavy use" folder. Just curious what that means to people.
 
Mostly I think folks say "hard use". But either way, it a very subjective term. For some folks, it means lots of cutting on the job. For others, its twisting, digging, prying and scraping. So it depends on who is saying it, and in what context. JMO. :thumbup:
 
I think if you aggressively twist and pry, dig or use the knife to the point where your hand/wrist hurts, you are falling into the category of 'heavy use' and then some. It is a very subjective term as has been mentioned here. There is no standard really...just a semantic battle. I know people that use their knives as chisels and think that constitutes normal use, they would also not hesitate to pry the lid off a paint can with a folder or throw a fixed blade at a tree. Then there are those blatant fools that chop pipe with a $500 semi-custom knife...go figure!
 
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I think its term used often by active military people who, like Powernoodle mentioned use it daily for cutting, digging, prying, fighting, and any other possible act a knife could be used for. Though some people may consider their edc blade heavy use simply because they work in, lets say a warehouse and use it constantly to cut open boxes, etc. IMO there's a slight difference between constant use and 'heavy use', mainly being that a heavy user's knife performs lots of tasks the knife probably wasn't designed to do, from prying open a door, to opening a can of beans.lol. Whereas a constant user's knife just does tons of cutting. But in the end, this is just my opinion on the subject, and each person is free to decribe their knifein whatever way he/she wants to.

" I may have brought a knife to a gun fight, but at least I don't have to reload after every 8 stabs."
 
Abuse for most knives. Mission statement for Demko knives.
 
I would say that "heavy" use means much more use and abuse than "light" use, but that depends on your own standards.

For me, light use is opening letters and amazon boxes, cutting thread, slicing apples, etc.

Heavy use, therefore, would be cutting a lot of cardboard boxes, cutting cords and wires, processing wood (batonning, although I *never* baton since I have a saw), whittling, making feather sticks all day, etc. Basically, anything that can seriously dull your knife, potentially chip your knife, or puts stress on the handle/blade area.

My Buck 186 sits on my living room table, ready to open boxes and cut string, but it's a cheap knife. I take my custom fixed blade with me for camping/hunting. It's differentially heat-treated 52100 with G10 scales. The Buck 186 is a $15 knife. My customs are $250+. Hope this helps. :)
 
Maybe it's just semantics but when I see "heavy use" I think of a knife being used for lots of cutting day in and day out (e.g. a knife used by a commercial fisherman) while "hard use" connotes something bordering more along the lines of abuse (e.g. a knife that may be used for prying).
 
Shotgun said:
What is "heavy use" to you?
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Use - manipulation/employment of an object/tool to a specific purpose (preferably a purpose for which its design is able to function, regardless of the makers intent)
Heavy - involving a relatively large amount of force or weight or (colloquially) importance (refers to the user)
Hard - solid, firm, resistant to pressure; requiring a relatively large amount of force or weight to be broken, bent, or pierced (refers to the tool / blade edge itself or to the material being encountered)

Combine your words, achieve a combined definition. It's that simple.:cool:
Now, what sorts of activities constitute "heavy use" or "hard use" is what varies subjectively (as is noted in the posts above), but the definition remains the same.
For those that use a knife fairly constantly but on relatively soft or non-abrasive material (e.g. slicing vegetables or meat on a soft cutting board, slicing paper, etc.) such use would be considered "light" due to the material being cut and the difficulty involvced in damaging the hard blade during such use. However, if the user failed to care for his blade amidst this "light use" (i.e. letting the blade dull significantly, etc.) then the amount of force required to accomplish the task would increase and the edge of the blade would become increasingly susceptible to damage, and use of the blade such that the edge is easily damaged could be considered "hard" from the point of view of the knife.
 
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chiral.grolim said:
Use - manipulation/employment of an object/tool to a specific purpose (preferably a purpose for which its design is able to function, regardless of the makers intent)
Heavy - involving a relatively large amount of force or weight or (colloquially) importance

Combine the two words, achieve a combined definition. It's that simple. Now, what sorts of activities constitute "heavy use" is what varies subjectively (as is noted in the posts above), but the definition remains the same.
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Not everyone's definition of a word or expression is the same so a dictionary answer is not helpful.
 
Shotgun said:
Not everyone's definition of a word or expression is the same so a dictionary answer is not helpful.
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Semantically incorrect, everyone's definition is the same, but what constitutes "hard use" (according to the definition) varies. Again, semantics. The other posts do not give a definition, only examples of activities which might fit the definition.
 
I consider what I do to knives heavy use. In this past month I've cut well over a thousand pieces of cardboard, popped metal seals off truck doors, pryed broken wood off pallet's, and still use it to open letter's dig splinters and cut food.
 
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JAB said:
Maybe it's just semantics but when I see "heavy use" I think of a knife being used for lots of cutting day in and day out (e.g. a knife used by a commercial fisherman) while "hard use" connotes something bordering more along the lines of abuse (e.g. a knife that may be used for prying).
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I'm in total agreement with this post.

I define my overall knife usage as "moderate", both in frequency (# of times I pull it out and use it) and in types of cutting chores.

Heavy use to me would be anyone that requires a knife / cutting tool as part of their standard work equipment.

I actually have to look for reasons to pull out and use a knife during the day during the work week.
 
An easy way to think of it - something you would rather do with a fixed blade than a slipjoint. Could be tons of different tasks.

There was a lot of times deployed in Iraq when we would be tasked with assembling and delivering x amount of goodies that usually took 2 hours but we only had 40 minutes and it was over 110 degrees outside. So you stage your gear out of the way and take care of business with only the tools you have in your pockets. Sometimes you ended up having to hand torque warheads to rocket tubes and take off metal banding from the pallets with a knife. A fixed blade would just snag on trailers or jab the crap out of you if you have it in the waistband.

I've seen people drop an open knife from waist level on to a piece of wood and the tip snapped, total POS.

Even at home practicing making traps can make some little folding knives loose.
 
To me "heavy use" means use that induces fatigue to both user and knife. Admittedly, that is subjective, but basically it is a high volume and frequency of cuts, any of which if considered individually would NOT be considered "abuse" by perhaps 99% of the members here, but collectively the volume and frequency of cuts would eventually take their toll on most knives.
 
unit said:
To me "heavy use" means use that induces fatigue to both user and knife. Admittedly, that is subjective, but basically it is a high volume and frequency of cuts, any of which if considered individually would NOT be considered "abuse" by perhaps 99% of the members here, but collectively the volume and frequency of cuts would eventually take their toll on most knives.
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Sounds about right.:)

If prying or other odd things are being done, then they should be listed separately, rather than lumped into one, catch-all category.
 
I do not use my knives hard - I have got plenty of them, as well as a whole range of other tools I use where and when appropriate. I even have a hatchet and am not afraid to use it! :D
 
unit said:
To me "heavy use" means use that induces fatigue to both user and knife. ... collectively the volume and frequency of cuts would eventually take their toll on most knives.
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Use that induces fatigue on the knife would not be 'subjective' (that refers to the user) but Objective. The next step is to describe what part of that use induces the fatigue. For example, subjecting a knife to corrosive environments might be considered "hard" use metaphorically relating the harsh nature of the environment to the hard surface of a stone, etc. Similarly, describing high volume or frequency of use as "heavy" is metaphorical, as if one could ascribe a weight-value to each use (cumulative amount of force) and place them on a scale together to see how much 'weight' the knife has accumulated. Metaphors are colloquial, like sarcasm. Another instances is referring to a subject/object's "importance" - the word itself originates from terms meaning "carrying a value/quantity of (physical) weight".

An example to draw this out: two users with identical knives, user A employs his knife many times per day but is very gentle with it and takes care of the edge; user B employs his knife only a few times per week but subjects it to significantly more force with each use, both in his handling and in the media he cuts, and is less cautious with the edge. I think that everyone agrees that user B puts his knife to "hard(er)" use than user A. But how many light cuts would user A have to make in order for the force employed to accumulate to a value equal to what user B employs in a single cut? And even then, could you call that "heavy" use if each individual cut is actually quite light in force and non-abrasive to the edge? To paint a better picture, imagine these men as kitchen chefs with the same knife, one filleting soft fish-flesh and tomatoes and the other chopping hard vegetables and slicing through bone...

So that's just more food for thought. By "heavy" do you mean "frequent" relative to some ephemeral norm of frequency or do you mean "heavy" with regard to the weight of force employed in each use?
 
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